Online Reporter
Eddie Chikamhi
Zimpapers Sports Hub
BRIAN Bennett came agonisingly close to a century as he once again showed his class, this time in a 72-run defeat at the hands of India at a packed MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai last night.
The loss, their second in the T20 World Cup Super Eight stage, as well as in the entire tournament, effectively ended Zimbabwe’s slim hopes of sneaking into the semi-finals.
The Chevrons have been promised US$1 million by businessman Wicknell Chivayo for their exploits in India and Sri Lanka.
It was always going to be a tall order for the Zimbabweans after they had let India loose in the field, conceding 256/4 courtesy of untidy bowling and episodes of sloppiness in the field.
Bennett led the Chevrons’ fight back with the bat when he scored an unbeaten 97 but by then Zimbabwe had long been out of the game.
On reflection, the Chevrons’ tally of 184/6 could have won them a match on any other day.
But they let themselves down on the field, after winning the toss and sending the Indians in to bat first.
Two half centuries from opening batter Abhishek Sharma (55) and Hardik Pandya (50) and the overall aggression from the entire batting lin- up pushed India to the highest total at this T20 World Cup.
The Indians surpassed the 254/5 that the Chevrons conceded against the West Indies on Monday.
Zimbabwe skipper Sikandar Raza felt they should have at least tried to stop India from piling up such a colossal total, which in the end proved insurmountable.
“Yeah, certainly I think we could have executed our defensive plan slightly better as well.
“I think we ended up going at them with hammer and tongues and unfortunately there was a lot of mis-execution when we were bowling from and they ended up getting a lot of those runs and once the train goes at that, it’s hard to bring it back.
“I think we could have executed our defensive plans better, that would have given us a better chance to restrict them to maybe 210, 220 and you never know from there,” said Raza.
The defeat yesterday came on the back of a 107-run rout by West Indies on Monday.
Zimbabwe now anchor Group One and the honeymoon is certainly over, although they still have another match to play against South Africa on Sunday.
The Chevrons had raised expectations with a fairy-tale run from the group stages where they beat former champions Australia and co-hosts Sri Lanka and finish with a clean record on top of the pool.
The Chevrons openers Bennett and Tadiwanashe Marumani (20 from 20) got off to a cautious start.
Marumani was dropped on 17 by Rinku Singh as the Chevrons finished the powerplay overs with 44 runs for no loss.
However, Marumani could not capitalise on the second chance as he went out for 20 runs.
All the while, Zimbabwe’s batters battled the scoreboard pressure as the required run rate kept mounting with each passing over.
At the halfway stage, the required run rate had climbed above 18-an-over, with the scoreboard reading 73/2.
Wickets continued to fall but Zimbabwe fought to the very end and averted a total rout.
Zimbabwe will play South Africa in their final Super Eight match on Sunday.
Mathew Masinge